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Conscious Eating

Is it a big slice of pizza, a burger, or your favorite chocolate cake?

Let’s face it, food today isn’t what it used to be anymore. Most people go through their lives no longer eating real food, rather they eat food-like things that have been made to please the tastebuds but do absolutely nothing for the body in terms of nourishment.

The whole purpose of eating has changed from giving us energy and nourishing our bodies to plain and simple enjoyment. We’re the only species on earth that do this, and we’re the only species that processes their food in so many different and unhealthy ways and still have the guts to call it food. Just because it’s edible doesn’t mean you should eat it. Now I’m not necessarily talking about all processed food, but you have to stop and think about what you’re putting in your body (after all, we’re only given one).

Now let’s talk about Junk Food. I really don’t think junk food should have the right to call itself food, because what nutrients are you getting from it aside from saturated fat, refined sugar, artificial flavoring, coloring and too much sodium? I don’t know about you, but I think any “food” that has anything artificial shouldn’t be put into our bodies. Anything that has a shelf-life too long shouldn’t be called food. Anything “fortified” means they had to ADD the nutrients into your food because they already stripped out the nutrients it had through different processes.

It’s kind of sad whenever people see me eating my deliciously healthy fresh salads, or fruits and vegetables and they say, “I wish I could eat healthy, but it’s too expensive”, “I don’t have the time”, “I love junk food”, etc., and the list of excuses goes on. Yes, I do get fed up with it, but the only thing I can do (without being a complete bitch) is to lead by example and to help incase anyone asks for it.

When it comes to fast food, we have to really stop and think. It’s fast, sure! But you know what’s faster and will actually nourish you? Fresh fruits and vegetables! There ain’t nothing faster than peeling a banana. If it takes you longer to peel a banana than it is to get your burger than you may need to learn how to peel a banana. But then if you tell someone to just eat some fruit, they’ll say it has too much sugar and it’s bad for you.Wait, wait, wait, come again?

Fruit comes from nature, how can that be bad for you? It’s natural and fresh and has tons of nutrients that will help nourish your body. What does a burger have? Oh, just a whole lot of preservatives, saturated fats, hormones, and all that jazz.

But to be completely honest, not all people will make a change in their lifestyles because they’re comfortable where they are. They’re happy with the convenience of preservative filled meats, hormones in their food, unnatural “food” type substances, because it’s the easy way of life. It’s in every corner, every food stall, every grocery. Tell me, is it natural to farm animals for food? If we were natural carnivores, we would just eat the animal as is. What makes us more special than them? Because as a species we’ve done more harm than good to our planet.

It makes me sad, angry, and lessens my hope for the future. I’ll be honest with you, three years ago, I would not have imagined my life the way it is now, I would not have imagined myself the way I am now. Going vegan has taught me so much about myself and this planet we call home. I’m more aware of what’s going on and how my actions affect the future and the other innocent beings around me. For example, I no longer spend hours on end in the mall shopping (I used to be quite the shopaholic), because I only need to get what I need, too much won’t do any good for the world. I bring my own food around because it costs less and because I know I want to still be able to eat good food wherever I go. We all deserve to feed our bodies with good nourishing food. Ever since going vegan, I’ve become smarter, I’ve learned to truly think. The thing is, all our actions affect the world, the energy we release, and the energy we bring into our bodies. Going vegan has opened my eyes, my mind, and my soul.

I could go on and on and let my thoughts turn into words, but I’ll save that for another day. I guess I just wanted to share the thoughts that have really been bothering me.

Here’s a simple tip for the day: If it has an ingredient you can’t even pronounce or sounds like something you would use to clean something, don’t eat it. If it has weird colors not normally found in natural food, don’t eat it.

Eat less from a factory, eat more from the ground. Eat to thrive, not just to survive.